The testimony in the case against the Times Union is complete, and the legal charges will now go to the judge for a decision.

Monday and Tuesday, a hearing into charges that the newspaper broke the law when it walked people out of the building when it was supposed to be negotiating critieria for layoffs was held at the Leo O’Brien Federal Building in downtown Albany. The National Labor Relations Board investigated the case and filed the charges.

A counsel for the NLRB was the lead prosecutor in the case.  Both the Guild and the newspaper had lawyers participating.

Guild President Tim O’Brien and seven of the workers who had been laid off testified in the case. The union is grateful to those workers for reliving what had to be one of the most painful days in their working lives.

The attorneys for all sides now have a little more than a month to file legal briefs that the judge will review before making his decision.

On Monday morning, the National Labor Relations Board will begin its hearing into charges that the Times Union violated labor law when it walked employees out of the building when the company was supposed to be negotiating layoff criteria with the Guild.

The case will be prosecuted by counsel from the NLRB, which investigated the complaint and filed the legal charge. The union will also have a lawyer participating. The company will have its own attorney, and the case will be heard by an administrative law judge.

The hearing will be held in a third floor room at the NLRB offices in the Leo O’Brien Federal Building in downtown Albany. It begins at 10 a.m. Monday and is open to the press and to the public. It is expected to take several days.

The administrative law judge will decide the case. If the Times Union is found to have violated labor law, it will be ordered to restore the affected employees to the payroll and to negotiate properly and in good faith.

Facts on NLRB charge filed against the Times Union

Q: What happened?

A: The National Labor Relations Board determined, after an investigation, that the Times Union broke the law when it walked employees out shortly after negotiations began over the criteria for layoffs.

Q: Publisher George Hearst told the Capital District Business Review “the panel merely determined that a hearing should be held to investigate the matter further.” Is this true?

A: No. The NLRB determined that the law was broken and filed a charge. The case will be prosecuted by counsel from the NLRB. This is the legal equivalent of an indictment in a criminal case: The party is not found guilty, but sufficient evidence has been found to hold a trial. Metaphorically speaking, this would be like a bank robber who is on trial saying “the police are merely continuing their investigation.” It is much more serious than the publisher’s comment would lead you to believe.

Q: Mr. Hearst told the Daily Gazette that if he lost, he’d merely bring the same people back to work and lay them off again. What’s the union response?

A: As I told the Gazette, it is stunning to hear that if the Times Union is found guilty of breaking the law, it would break the law again. A newspaper should hold itself to a much higher standard.

Q: The Company says this case will drag on for months, possibly years. Is that true?

A: Yes, if the Times Union chooses to drag it out. If convicted, the Times Union could appeal to the NLRB in Washington, D.C. If the conviction is upheld, the TU could then appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals. All that time, however, the back pay owed to the workers would continue to accrue.

Q: I’m glad the layoffs are over. Why not just let this go?

A: We have a moral and legal obligation to represent all our members. We cannot tell our laid-off colleagues: “We know the Times Union broke the law, but we’re going to let them away with it.” Also, there is no guarantee layoffs won’t occur again in the future, and the Company cannot legally pick and choose whomever it wants to lay off without negotiation so this does affect all employees now and in the future. And finally, and this is a major reason for the NLRB to pursue this case, allowing the Times Union to break the law this way would set a precedent for other companies to walk out workers too rather than negotiate criteria in good faith.

Q: The publisher says the company presented criteria in the layoffs, and the union never did. Is that true?

A: No, it is not. We presented proposals on Aug. 19 and on Sept. 10. In fact, the final words spoken at the bargaining table prior to the company declaring impasse in negotiations over layoffs were these by Mark Batten, a Boston area lawyer hired to represent the TU: “I will have to discuss this (Guild proposal) over lunch break to see if there is a counterproposal possible.” Rather than reply to our proposal, the Company declared an impasse.

“One quality underlying successful businesses is the bond of trust they have built with consumers, which they invite by displaying integrity. … Clear and fair rules of the road need to be in place for business, just as they are for traffic. And those who violate the rules need to be held to account.’’

-­­Times Union Editor Rex Smith in a March 13 column.

http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2010/04/12/daily37.html

The Times Union broke the law when it walked workers out of the newspaper’s offices when it was supposed to be negotiating criteria for layoffs, the National Labor Relations Board has charged.

The newspaper is now charged with violating labor law and will face a trial scheduled for Monday, May 17, at the Leo O’Brien Federal Building in Albany.

“From the moment it happened, we said the Times Union’s actions were a blatant violation of the law,” said Guild President Tim O’Brien. “Now the National Labor Relations Board has investigated and come to the same conclusion. This is no longer an argument between the newspaper management and the union. This is the equivalent of an indictment of the newspaper’s management.”

A 22-year employee of the newspaper, O’Brien said he had never been more stunned by the actions of the company. Last July, TU managers walked employees to the personnel office, where a security guard was stationed, and told them their careers were over.

Editor Rex Smith then announced to the newsroom that the workers were laid off, and the newspaper’s story the next day called the discharges layoffs. The Company then claimed it was continuing to bargain the layoffs in good faith, but it made not one change before announcing those talks at an impasse.

The NLRB investigation took time but came to the same conclusion the union did: The Times Union broke the law.

“A newspaper plays a very important role in the community. It holds people in power accountable for their actions,” O’Brien said. “Now the Times Union itself must be held accountable for its actions.”

If the administrative law judge finds the Times Union guilty as charged, the newspaper will be ordered to restore a dozen laid-off workers back to the payroll and to resume good-faith negotiations over the criteria.

“The Times Union must bargain with us and not simply present us with a fait accompli,” O’Brien said. “That’s not legal. We take no pride in seeing the Times Union charged, but a newspaper of all businesses should not believe it is above the law.”

The Guild’s Executive Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. today at its offices in the Albany Labor Temple and will set a date for a membership meeting to discuss the legal action and to elect two new members to our Executive Board.